Inferiority Complex
by SamNny
Summary: "I just… feel ashamed, I guess. And I never thought I'd see the day when I said this, but… I wish I could be more like your brother. I want to be able to protect you like he does." Tristenity Ardentshipping


Man, this was getting old! All the practicing, the late nights studying, the money invested, the organizing and strategizing… it all seemed like it was for nothing! No matter how hard I tried, or how many steps ahead I thought I was, I kept losing in the end. To Joey of all people!

I should probably start this rant from the beginning. This whole mess started after I lost my body dueling Nesbitt. I talked myself up, saying that I was the one who taught Joey how to duel. What a load of crap that was. Sure, I used to be better than him. We didn't play often, but when we did, I'd kick his butt. That was back when his deck only had tons of powerful monster cards. With no magic or trap cards, he was easy for everyone to beat.

He upped his game, though, and went through intense training with Yugi's grandpa. That man drilled Joey until he became delusional. He went through all the same steps that I did recently, only he had a teacher. I guess that was my mistake, thinking I could do this solo. I wouldn't say that I'm afraid to admit I need help, it's more like I don't want people to know how bad that duel messed me up. Not only did I embarrass myself in front of Duke and Serenity, but I wasn't able to protect her. Instead it was her and Duke saving me.

So you see, this is all a matter of pride for me. I was never a super awesome duelist, but with all the troubles we face and how we resolve _everything _with a duel, I should have been learning a long time ago. I could have asked Yugi to teach me, but I suppose I never figured I'd be in battle. I was just as content as Téa to be on the sidelines cheering. That never got old until now. And don't even bother suggesting that I ask Joey to teach me – that bastard would only laugh at me, drill me, and then probably pick a fight when he found out it was for his sister. He absolutely despised the idea of either Duke or myself being with her. He was like an overly-protective father or something who thought no one was good enough for his little girl.

Of course, we didn't care. If Serenity actually wanted to be with either of us, that was her choice. My problem also just so happens to be that Duke has the upper hand. He has money, the ability to duel fairly well, and he's already proven that he's more competent than me, because he was the one who remained standing after I fell into the pit of fire. He also didn't lie to Serenity about what he could actually do. I just made an idiot out of myself and became the one who needed saving, and I really became good for nothing when that duel was over and I came back in the form of a robot monkey!

So now that that's all been said, you can see why I'm so frustrated. All of this downtime we've had has given me the opportunity to lock myself away and drive myself insane. I don't think I have a dime to my name anymore after buying all of my new cards. That was even with me trading out a lot of my old ones. I did a bunch of research online about strategy and how to organize your deck. I think I could recite all of those articles back word for word with how many times I've gone over them. After that was done, I set out and dueled a bunch of random kids at school. I beat a few of them, but I still lost most of the time. I kept everything on the down low, not wanting my friends to catch wind of my insanity. I had been avoiding them like the plague since this all started.

They tried to ask me where I'd been and why I'd been so distant, but I kept brushing it off and redirecting the attention to Joey. I'd make fun of him or insult him and he'd get all mad, and pretty soon we'd be fighting, and the attention would be off me and onto both of us. When it was over, everyone would forget about what we were originally talking about. That worked for a couple of weeks, anyway. When that started to backfire on me, I decided to take a day off.

I skipped school that following Thursday and wandered around downtown. I used what little money I could find lying around the house to play a couple games at the arcade. Why couldn't dueling be as simple as an arcade game? I kick butt at every one of these games. I've beaten both Yugi and Joey half a dozen times. But after I ran out of money, I shoved my hands in my pockets and wandered around. I walked down by the skate park, the pier, the museum, and all of that good stuff. I was bored by noon, but I still didn't feel like going home.

But then something bizarre happened. You see, I could have sworn that I saw a familiar face. My eyes lingered over to where I saw it and they locked onto the back of someone's head. She looked to be about the right height. Same lengthy brown hair and pink vest, too. So having nothing better to do, I followed her at a safe distance. She moved pretty slow, so it wasn't hard to keep up. What was hard was not losing sight of her in this sea of people.

She walked a few blocks up the street, stopping every so often to peek into store windows. I stopped at all of them after she moved on; trying to figure out what caught her eye. It didn't matter, though, because I didn't have the money to buy her anything, anyway. At least not right now. But I suppose I was staring for too long into this shop window, because when I went to move on, I lost her. Panicking slightly, I hurriedly dashed through the crowd, trying not to be rude, but it wasn't like I could politely shove people out of the way. Unfortunately for me, this was all a big mistake, because as I was pushing past the entrance to one of the stores, she just happened to walk out of it. And she, of course, recognized me.

"Tristan?"

Freezing at the sound of my own name, I tripped over my own two feet and made firm contact with the sidewalk below. She gasped and called out to me, running over and helping me up. I rubbed my forehead and noted the lovely scratch I could feel on it. The rest of me was fine, albeit kind of sore from the impact. My jeans and jacket protected me, so I didn't worry about it.

Serenity grabbed my arm, asking me all sorts of questions like if I was alright and if I needed her to get me anything. I told her no, insisting that it was my own dumbass fault for tripping like that. She guided me over to a nearby bench and we sat down to rest for awhile. She was going to ask why I wasn't in school, what I was doing running around, and all of that. And seeing as how I knew all of this, I decided to beat her to it.

"Look, I know what you're going to say, so here it is: I decided to skip school today. I know it's wrong, and I promise that I don't make it a habit, but I really just wanted to clear my head today. I was doing all of that running because I thought I recognized you. I wasn't trying to be a creeper, I swear, but I just wanted to be sure it was you. I thought it was kind of weird to see you by yourself."

She stared at me for the longest time and I thought she was mad at me or something. Why was she so quiet? I had to force myself to drift my eyes upward and look at her face. Her hand was covering her mouth and tiny little teardrops formed at the edge of her eyes. I immediately jumped up, completely panicked, and wondered what in the Hell I did to upset her. I started apologizing profusely and I begged her not to cry, but… but then she started laughing. There was this cute hiccup sound and her body shook lightly before she just erupted into a fit of laughter.

And I, being as utterly confused as ever, just stood and watched her. She grabbed at her sides and her whole face was turning red. She tried to wipe at one of her eyes, but more tears kept coming. It was as if she just lost complete control of herself. It took about two minutes for her to finally calm down and recompose herself. When she finally stopped crying, she looked up at me with that gorgeous smile and just beamed at me.

"Oh, Tristan, you're so funny!"

Still confused, I waited for further explanation, but nothing came. She just stared up at me with that adorable smile on her face and I could feel my cheeks heating up. She patted the spot next to her on the bench and I sat back down. What exactly just happened?

"I'm sorry I laughed at you. It was just… you were so funny with how defensive you got. I wasn't going to interrogate you, you know."

Feeling like a major moron, I chuckled slightly and turned away. Why did I keep embarrassing myself in front of her? Why was it that I could act completely normal around every other girl I met except for her? What kind of power did she have over me anyway? I mean, God, she was stunningly beautiful, kindhearted, funny, and the most adorable creature I had ever seen, but still! How did that give her the right to make a fool out of me?

"Um, Tristan?"

Snapping back into reality, I forced myself to face her and said, "I'm sorry." She just gave me a neutral look and I felt obligated to say something else. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that."

She put her hand on my shoulder and smiled again for me, making my heart melt a little, before saying, "Is something on your mind? You don't seem to be acting like yourself." I locked eyes with her and knew – just _knew _– that I couldn't lie to her. If I told her I was fine, she'd ask why I had to clear my head and skip. If I told her it was nothing, she'd also ask me why I had to skip school and clear my head. If I told her anything besides the truth, she'd ask me that. There was no getting around this, so…

"To be completely honest, I haven't been feeling all that great lately."

Tightening her grip on my shoulder, she raised her other hand to my forehead. She felt it and said, "You don't seem to have a fever." I laughed a bit before removing her hand, although forgetting to let go of it. She stared at my hand holding hers while I continued.

"No, no. I don't mean I've been feeling sick. I guess the best way to put it would be to say that my pride's been hurt."

She kept giving me a look that said 'I'm listening, please go on,' so I kept talking.

"You see, after our duel with Nesbitt, I've been feeling kind of down. I mean, I lied to you and said that I taught Joey everything he knows, when the truth was that he could duel circles around me. Then I went and lost all my life points, leaving you only with Duke as protection. He was able to do a better job than I was, anyway. Then all I could do after that was be a cheerleader for everyone else during the rest of the Battle City tournament. I just… feel ashamed, I guess. And I never thought I'd see the day when I said this, but… I wish I could be more like your brother. I want to be able to protect you like he does."

Suddenly realizing that I had said too much, my face flushed the darkest shade of red and I let go of her hand to cover my own mouth. Way to go, Tristan, you gave her the truth and a whole lot of other information that she didn't need to know! Standing up again, I muttered out a quick 'I'm sorry,' and turned to walk away. However, I didn't count on her reaching out her tiny, soft hand and grabbing onto my larger, rougher one. And I couldn't really do anything about it, so… I just froze again.

"Did you… mean all of that, Tristan?"

Once again, I can't lie to her, so I nodded my head. I could hear a faint gasp behind me and I wondered if I had upset her. Now she probably wouldn't talk to me ever again. Now I was just her brothers' creepy friend who had a crush on her. God, what did I just do to myself? Why did I have to be so stupid all the time? Why did I always say too much or the wrong thing whenever she was arou-

But my discouraging thoughts were interrupted by a pair of small arms wrapping themselves around me. I could feel something warm behind me and the light scent of perfume filled the air. I couldn't peg the smell, but it was my new favorite for sure.

"That was so sweet, Tristan. I never really cared that you lied to me, I was just happy you were still safe. I felt very scared and alone after you were gone, even with Duke there. You don't have to be like Joey in order to protect me, because… the truth is that I've always felt safer with you around. So please don't feel bad anymore."

I could hear her voice crack slightly and I knew that she was upset. She felt responsible for my being upset. I wonder how much worse she would have felt if I had told her about all the lengths I had been going to so I could better myself. Although, I didn't really want her to find out.

So I suppose the only thing I can do now is turn around and wrap her in a hug as well. I couldn't believe how close we were and I thought for sure I would do something to screw everything up. But I forced myself to take deep breaths and I let one arm wrap around her waist while I used my other hand to gently stroke her hair. I could feel her smile into my chest and I knew that this was probably the one thing I had under control right now.

So… in your face, Duke!

* * *

"A/N: I have finally done it! My long run of strictly Peachshipping fanfictions has finally come to an end! God, even though I love writing Peachshipping stories, I have been dying to write for other Yu-Gi-Oh pairings. And lately it's been for Tristan and Serenity, so here you go! I really hope this story wasn't too terrible; it is my first Ardentshipping, after all. I tried keeping everyone in character, but I couldn't resist the mini-fluff at the end. I'm a sucker for romance. Anyway, I would just like to request that you all leave reviews to tell me what you thought. Was it good, bad, cheesy, OOC, etc.? Criticism is always welcome. So, yeah. "


End file.
